Leiden University

Leiden University
Universiteit Leiden
Latin: Academia Lugduno-Batava
Former names
Rijksuniversiteit Leiden
Motto Libertatis Praesidium
Motto in English
Bastion of Freedom
Type Public research university
Established 1575
Endowment 558 million (2014)[1]
Rector Prof. mr. Carel Stolker
Academic staff
1,352[1]
Administrative staff
1,142[1]
Students 24,270 (2014)[1]
Location Leiden & The Hague, South Holland, Netherlands
Campus Urban
Nobel Laureates Jacobus van 't Hoff, Hendrik Lorentz, Pieter Zeeman, Johannes Diderik van der Waals, Tobias Asser, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Albert Einstein, Willem Einthoven, Albert Szent-Györgyi, Enrico Fermi, Gerrit Jan van Heuven Goedhart, Igor Tamm, Jan Tinbergen, Nikolaas Tinbergen, Tjalling Koopmans, Nicolaas Bloembergen[2]
Colours

     Dark Blue[3]

Website www.leiden.edu

Leiden University (abbreviated as LEI, Dutch: Universiteit Leiden), located in the city of Leiden, is the oldest university in the Netherlands.[4] The university was founded in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, leader of the Dutch Revolt in the Eighty Years' War. The Dutch Royal Family and Leiden University still have a close relationship; Queens Juliana and Beatrix and King Willem-Alexander are all former students.

Leiden University has seven faculties, over 50 departments and enjoys an outstanding international reputation. In 2013 Leiden was the highest ranked university in the Netherlands in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, where it was rated as the 28th best university worldwide and 61st for international reputation. Shanghai Jiao Tong University's 2011 Academic Ranking of World Universities ranked Leiden University as the 29th best university worldwide.[5] The Times Higher Education World University Rankings consistently rank Leiden University as the best university in Continental Europe for Arts and Humanities. The University is associated with ten leaders and Prime Ministers of the Netherlands including the current Prime Minister Mark Rutte, nine foreign leaders, among them the 6th President of the United States John Quincy Adams, a Secretary General of NATO, a President of the International Court of Justice and sixteen recipients of the Nobel Prize (including renowned physicists Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi). The university came into particular prominence during the Dutch Golden Age, when scholars from around Europe were attracted to the Dutch Republic due to its climate of intellectual tolerance and Leiden's international reputation. During this time Leiden was home to such figures as René Descartes, Rembrandt, Hugo Grotius, Baruch Spinoza and Baron d'Holbach. The university is a member of the Coimbra Group, the Europaeum and the League of European Research Universities.

Albert Einstein was known as a professor at Leiden University. Einstein regularly taught Leiden students for a few weeks per year. His first lecture at Leiden was about "Ether and Relativity Theory".[6]

Leiden University houses more than 40 national and international research institutes.

History

The Academy building of Leiden University

In 1575, the emerging Dutch Republic did not have any universities in its northern heartland. The only other university in the Habsburg Netherlands was the University of Leuven in southern Leuven, firmly under Spanish control. The scientific renaissance had begun to highlight the importance of academic study, so Prince William founded the first Dutch university in Leiden, to give the Northern Netherlands an institution that could educate its citizens for religious purposes, but also to give the country and its government educated men in other fields.[7] It is said the choice fell on Leiden as a reward for the heroic defence of Leiden against Spanish attacks in the previous year. Ironically, the name of Philip II of Spain, William's adversary, appears on the official foundation certificate, as he was still the de jure count of Holland. Philip II replied by forbidding any subject to study in Leiden. Originally located in the convent of St Barbara, the university moved to the Faliede Bagijn Church in 1577 (now the location of the University museum) and in 1581 to the convent of the White Nuns, a site which it still occupies, though the original building was destroyed by fire in 1616.[7]

The presence within half a century of the date of its foundation of such scholars as Justus Lipsius, Joseph Scaliger, Franciscus Gomarus, Hugo Grotius, Jacobus Arminius, Daniel Heinsius and Gerhard Johann Vossius, rapidly made Leiden university into a highly regarded institution that attracted students from across Europe in the 17th century.[8] Renowned philosopher Baruch Spinoza was based close to Leiden during this period and interacted with numerous scholars at the university. The learning and reputation of Jacobus Gronovius, Herman Boerhaave, Tiberius Hemsterhuis and David Ruhnken, among others, enabled Leiden to maintain its reputation for excellence down to the end of the 18th century.

At the end of the nineteenth century, Leiden University again became one of Europe's leading universities.[9] At the world’s first university low-temperature laboratory, professor Heike Kamerlingh Onnes achieved temperatures of only one degree above absolute zero of −273 degrees Celsius. In 1908 he was also the first to succeed in liquifying helium and can be credited with the discovery of the superconductivity in metals.

Kamerlingh Onnes was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1913. Three other professors received the Nobel Prize for their research performed at Universiteit Leiden: Hendrik Antoon Lorentz and Pieter Zeeman received the Nobel Prize for their pioneering work in the field of optical and electronic phenomena, and the physiologist Willem Einthoven for his invention of the string galvanometer, which among other things, enabled the development of electrocardiography.

These Nobel prize winners, but also the physicists Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi and Paul Ehrenfest, the Arabist and Islam expert Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, the law expert Cornelis van Vollenhoven and historian Johan Huizinga, were among those who pushed the university into a place of international prominence during the 1920s and 1930s. In 2005 the manuscript of Einstein on the quantum theory of the monatomic ideal gas (the Einstein-Bose condensation) was discovered in one of Leiden's libraries.[10]

At present, Leiden has a firmly established international position among the top research institutes in many fields, including the natural sciences, medicine, social and behavioural sciences, law, arts and letters. Of the seventy-seven Spinozapremie (the highest scientific award of The Netherlands), nineteen were granted to professors of the Universiteit Leiden. Literary historian Frits van Oostrom was the first professor of Leiden to be granted the Spinoza award for his work on developing the NLCM centre (Dutch literature and culture in the Middle Ages) into a top research centre. Other Spinozapremie winners are linguists Frederik Kortlandt and Pieter Muysken, mathematician Hendrik Lenstra, physicists Carlo Beenakker, Jan Zaanen and Dirk Bouwmeester, astromers Ewine van Dishoeck, Marijn Franx and Alexander Tielens, transplantation biologist Els Goulmy, clinical epidemiologist Frits Rosendaal, pedagogue Rien van IJzendoorn, archeologists Wil Roebroeks and Corinne Hofman, neurologist Michel Ferrari, classicist Ineke Sluiter, social psychologist Naomi Ellemers, statistician Aad van der Vaart.[11] Among other leading professors are Wim Blockmans, professor of Medieval History, and Willem Adelaar, professor of Amerindian Languages.

The portraits of many famous professors since the earliest days hang in the university aula, one of the most memorable places, as Niebuhr called it, in the history of science.

The University Library, which has more than 5.2 million books and fifty thousand journals, also has a number of internationally renowned special collections of western and oriental manuscripts, printed books, archives, prints, drawings, photographs, maps, and atlases. It houses the largest collections worldwide on Indonesia and the Caribbean. Scholars from all over the world visit Leiden University Library, the oldest in the Netherlands. The research activities of the Scaliger Institute focus on these special collections and concentrate particularly on the various aspects of the transmission of knowledge and ideas through texts and images from antiquity to the present day.

Among the institutions affiliated with the university are The KITLV or Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (founded in 1851), the observatory 1633; the natural history museum, with a very complete anatomical cabinet; the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (National Museum of Antiquities), with specially valuable Egyptian and Indian departments; a museum of Dutch antiquities from the earliest times; and three ethnographical museums, of which the nucleus was Philipp Franz von Siebold's Japanese collections. The anatomical and pathological laboratories of the university are modern, and the museums of geology and mineralogy have been restored.

The Hortus Botanicus (botanical garden) is the oldest botanical garden in the Netherlands, and one of the oldest in the world. Plants from all over the world have been carefully cultivated here by experts for more than four centuries. The Clusius garden (a reconstruction), the 18th century Orangery with its monumental tub plants, the rare collection of historical trees hundreds of years old, the Japanese Siebold Memorial Museum symbolising the historical link between East and West, the tropical greenhouses with their world class plant collections, and the central square and Conservatory exhibiting exotic plants from South Africa and southern Europe.

Research at Leiden is well developed. There are many university research institutes and Leiden participates in over forty nationwide research schools, twelve of which being located in the heart of Leiden. In 2012 Leiden entered into a strategic alliance with Delft University of Technology and Erasmus University Rotterdam in order for the universities to increase the quality of their research and teaching. The university is also the unofficial home of the Bilderberg Group, a meeting of high-level political and economic figures from North America and Europe. In the past hundred years rare honorary degrees have been granted to figures such as Winston Churchill and Nelson Mandela.

The institution

The Leiden University Medical Centre
Faculty of Law
A new professor's inauguration lecture in the Academiegebouw, 2008

The university has no central campus; its buildings are spread over the city. Some buildings, like the Gravensteen, are very old, while buildings like Lipsius and Gorlaeus are much more modern. The university is divided into seven major faculties which offer approximately 50 undergraduate degree programmes and over 100 graduate programmes. In recent years the university has also expanded to The Hague which is home to Leiden University College The Hague a liberal arts and sciences college and the departments of Public Administration, International Relations and Politics. It occupies a number of buildings in the historic centre of the city including a college building in Lange Voorhout.

Faculties
Humanities Website
Law Website
Medicine / LUMC Website
Mathematics and Natural Sciences Website
Social and Behavioural sciences Website
Archaeology Website
Governance and Global Affairs Website

Education

Undergraduate programmes

Most of the university's departments offer their own degree programme(s). Undergraduate programmes lead to either a B.A., B.Sc. or LL.B. degree. Other degrees, such as the B.Eng. or B.F.A., are not awarded at Leiden University.

  • African Languages and Cultures[12]
  • Archeology
  • Arabic, Persian and Turkish Languages and Cultures[13]
  • Art History
  • Assyriology
  • Astronomy
  • Biology[14]
  • Biomedical Sciences
  • Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences[15]
  • Chemistry
  • Chinese Languages and Cultures[16]
  • Classics
  • Comparative Indo-European Linguistics
  • Computer Science
  • Criminology
  • Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology
  • Dutch Language and Literature
  • Dutch Studies[17]
  • Educational Sciences
  • Egyptian Languages and Cultures (Egyptology)[18]
  • English Language and Culture[19]
  • French Language and Culture[20]
  • German Language and Culture[21]
  • History[22]
  • Hebrew and Aramaic Languages and Cultures[23]
  • Indian American Studies[24]
  • Indology (South and central Asia)[25]
  • Indonesian Languages and Cultures[26]
  • International Relations and Organisations
  • International Studies[27]
  • Italian Language and Culture[28]
  • Japanese Languages and Cultures[29]
  • Korean Languages and Cultures[30]
  • Latin American Studies & Spanish[31]
  • Law (General Dutch Law track)
  • Liberal Arts and Sciences
  • Linguistics
  • Life Science and Technology
  • Literature
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine (6-year track)
  • Molecular Science and Technology
  • Near Eastern Studies
  • New Persian Languages and Cultures (Turkish)[32]
  • Notarial Law
  • Philosophy
  • Physics
  • Political Science[33]
  • Public Administration[34]
  • Psychology
  • Russian Studies[35]
  • Slavic Languages and Literatures[36]
  • Turkish[37]
  • Southeast Asia and Oceania Languages and Cultures
  • Tax Law
  • Theology
  • World Religion Studies

Graduate studies

Students can choose from a range of graduate programmes. Most of the above-mentioned undergraduate programmes can be continued with either a general or a specialised graduate program. Leiden University offers more than 100 graduate programs leading to either MA, MSc, MPhil, or LLM degrees. The MPhil. is a special research degree and only awarded by selected departments of the university (mostly in the fields of Arts, Social Sciences, Archeology, Philosophy, and Theology). Admission to these programmes is highly selective and primarily aimed at those students opting for an academic career.

The Pieter de la Court-building, the main building of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences

Some of the notable graduate programmes are

  • Air and Space Law
  • Asian Studies
  • Bioinformatics
  • Chemistry
    • Industrial Ecology M.Sc. (track)
  • DNA Computing
  • Biopharmaceutical Sciences
  • European Law[38]
  • European and International Business Law
  • European Union Studies
  • Evolutionary and Ecological Sciences
  • Functional Genomics
  • History
  • ICT in Business[39]
  • Public International Law
  • International Relations and Diplomacy
  • International Tax Law[40]
  • Islamic Studies[41]
  • Life Science and Technology[42]
  • Linguistics
  • Mathematics
  • Media Technology[43]
  • Nanoscience
  • Philosophy of a Specific Discipline
  • Toxicology[44]

Doctorate programmes

In addition, most departments, affiliated (research) institutes or faculties offer doctorate programmes or positions, leading to the PhD degree. Most of the PhD programmes offered by the university are concentrated in several research schools or institutes.

Research schools and affiliated institutes

Research building of the Leiden University Medical Centre
logo of the Leiden academy, founded in 2008.

Leiden University has more than 50 research and graduate schools and institutes. Some of them are fully affiliated with one faculty of the university, while others are interfaculty institutes or even interuniversity institutes.

Institute
ASC African Studies Centre Leiden
CML Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML)[45]
CRC Crisis Research Centre[46]
CTI Centre for Language and Identity
CWTS Centre for Science and Technology Studies
The Meijers Research Institute Research School for Legal Studies
eLaw@Leiden Centre for Law in the Information Society
Grotius Centre Research Centre for International Legal Studies
GSS Leiden Graduate School of Science
Historical Institute Leiden University Institute for History
Huizinga Instituut Research Institute and Graduate School for Cultural History
IBL Institute of Biology Leiden
IIAS International Institute for Asian Studies
IIASL International Institute of Air and Space Law
IOPS Interuniversity Graduate School of Psychometrics and Sociometrics
ITC International Tax Centre (ITC)[47]
LACDR The Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research
LCMBS Leiden Centre for Molecular BioScience
LEAD Leiden Ethnosystems and Development Programme, Faculty of Science Leiden Ethnosystems and Development Programme, [http://science.leidenuniv.nl/index.php/lead/index/ LEAD]
Leyden Academy Leyden Academy on Vitality and Ageing[48]
LGSAS Leiden Graduate School for Archeology
LIACS Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science[49]
LIAS Leiden Institute for Area Studies
LIBC Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition[50]
LIC Leiden Institute of Chemistry
LION Leiden Institute of Physics
LISOR Leiden Institute for the Study of Religion
LUCAS Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society
LUCL Leiden University Centre for Linguistics
LUMC Leiden University Medical Centre
LUMI Mathematical Institute of Leiden University
Mediëvistiek Netherlands Research School for Medieval Studies
NIG Netherlands Institute of Government
NINO Netherlands Institute for the Near East
NOVA Netherlands Research School for Astronomy
N.W. Posthumus Instituut Netherlands Research Institute and School for Economic and Social History
OIKOS National Research School in Classical Studies
Onderzoekschool Kunstgeschiedenis Dutch Postgraduate School for Art History
OSL Netherlands Research School for Literary Studies
PALLAS Pallas Institute for Cultural Disciplines
Sterrewacht Leiden Leiden Astronomical Observatory
The Europa Institute Leiden Law School
Van Vollenhoven Institute Research Institute for Law, Governance and Development

Notable alumni and professors

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

U

V

W

Z

International acclaim

In the 2009 THE–QS World University Rankings list the University of Leiden was ranked inside the top 100 for the fourth consecutive year. However, in 2010 it dropped 22 places in the QS World University Rankings[51] to 82nd from its position of 60th in the 2009 THE-QS Rankings (in 2010 Times Higher Education World University Rankings and QS World University Rankings parted ways to produce separate rankings). In the 2012 QS World University Rankings Leiden was named in 75th place. In the Academic Ranking of World Universities compiled by Shanghai Jiaotong University Leiden has been in the top hundred universities worldwide since the table's inception in 2003 and in 2012 was ranked 73rd overall.

An overview of the THE-QS Rankings up to 2013:

Year Rank (Change)
200378
2004131 (Decrease 53)
2005138 (Decrease 7)
200690 (Increase 48)
200784 (Increase 6)
200864 (Increase 20)
200960 (Increase 4)
201082 (Decrease 22)
201188 (Decrease 6)
201275 (Increase 13)
201364 (Increase 9)

An overview of the Academic Ranking of World Universities up to 2013:

Year Rank (Change)
200378
200463 (Increase 15)
200563
200672 (Decrease 9)
200771 (Increase 1)
200876 (Decrease 5)
200972 (Increase 4)
201070 (Increase 2)
201165 (Increase 5)
201273 (Decrease 8)
201374 (Decrease 1)

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "The University in figures". Leiden University. Retrieved 2016-01-29.
  2. Leiden's Nobel Laureates - website of the Leiden University
  3. "Universiteit Leiden Kleurgebruik". Leiden University. Retrieved 2013-02-07.
  4. Technically the University of Leuven, currently in Belgium but in the year of its foundation (1425) located in the Netherlands, is the oldest university ever founded in the Netherlands, but Leuven is no longer part of the Netherlands.
  5. ARWU 2010 Top 100 Universities.
  6. University, Leiden. "Einstein in Leiden". Leiden University. Retrieved 9 May 2014.
  7. 1 2 Otterspeer, Willem (2000). Groepsportret met Dame: de Leidse universiteit , 1575-1672. ISBN 978-90-351-2240-6.
  8. Schnappen, H. (1960). Niederländische Universitäten und deutsches Geistesleben von der Gründung der Universität Leiden bis ins späte 18. Jahrhundert. Neue Münstersche Beiträge zur Geschichtsforschung 6. Münster. OCLC 3783378.
  9.   Last Modified: 09-10-2009. "Leiden's Nobel Laureates". About.leiden.edu. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  10. BBC NEWS | Europe | Student unearths Einstein paper.
  11. "Spinoza Prize". Leiden University. 20 July 2015. Retrieved 1 August 2015.
  12. Humanities Faculty Web Editors Last Modified: 10-08-2011. "Webpage African Languages and Cultures". Hum.leiden.edu. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  13. LIAS Last Modified: 22-08-2012 (2012-08-22). "Webpage Middle Eastern Studies". Hum.leiden.edu. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  14.   Last Modified: 06-09-2011. "Webpage Biology". Prospectivestudents.leiden.edu. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  15.   Last Modified: 06-09-2011. "Webpage Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences". Prospectivestudents.leiden.edu. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  16. Humanities Faculty Web Editors Last Modified: 01-03-2012. "Webpage Chinese Studies". Hum.leiden.edu. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  17. "Webpage Dutch Studies". Hum.leiden.edu. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  18. Humanities Faculty Web Editors Last Modified: 06-05-2010. "Egyptian Language and Culture". Hum.leiden.edu. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  19. Humanities Faculty Web Editors Last Modified: 10-08-2011. "English Language and Culture". Hum.leiden.edu. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  20. Humanities Faculty Web Editors Last Modified: 08-03-2012. "French Language and Culture". Hum.leiden.edu. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  21. Humanities Faculty Web Editors Last Modified: 08-03-2012. "German Language and Culture". Hum.leiden.edu. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  22. "History". History.leidenuniv.nl. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  23. Humanities Faculty Web Editors Last Modified: 10-08-2011. "Hebrew and Aramic Studies". Hum.leiden.edu. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  24. "Indian American Studies". Hum.leidenuniv.nl. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  25. Humanities Faculty Web Editors Last Modified: 06-05-2010. "Languages and Cultures of India and Tibet". Hum.leiden.edu. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  26. Humanities Faculty Web Editors Last Modified: 06-05-2010. "Indonesian Studies". Hum.leiden.edu. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  27. "International studies". Hum.leiden.edu. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  28. Humanities Faculty Web Editors Last Modified: 08-03-2012. "Italian Language and Culture". Hum.leiden.edu. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  29. Humanities Faculty Web Editors Last Modified: 01-03-2012. "Japanese Studies". Hum.leiden.edu. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  30. Humanities Faculty Web Editors Last Modified: 10-08-2011. "Korean Studies". Hum.leiden.edu. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  31. Humanities Faculty Web Editors Last Modified: 10-08-2011. "Latin American Studies". Hum.leiden.edu. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  32. Humanities Faculty Web Editors Last Modified: 06-05-2010. "New Persian & Turkish". Hum.leiden.edu. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  33.   Last Modified: 08-11-2011. "Political Science". Prospectivestudents.leiden.edu. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  34.   Last Modified: 08-11-2011. "Public Administration". Prospectivestudents.leiden.edu. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  35. Humanities Faculty Web Editors Last Modified: 01-09-2011. "Russian Studies". Hum.leiden.edu. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  36. Humanities Faculty Web Editors Last Modified: 10-08-2011. "Slavic Languages and Cultures". Hum.leiden.edu. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  37. Humanities Faculty Web Editors Last Modified: 06-05-2010. "Turkish Studies". Hum.leiden.edu. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  38. "European Law". En.mastersinleiden.nl. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  39. "ICT in Business Programme". Iib.liacs.nl. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  40. "International Tax Law". En.mastersinleiden.nl. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  41. "Islamic Studies". En.mastersinleiden.nl. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  42. "Life sciences". En.mastersinleiden.nl. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  43. "Media Technology (MSc)". Mediatechnology.leiden.edu. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  44. "Toxicology". En.mastersinleiden.nl. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  45. "Institute of Environmental Sciences". Cml.leiden.edu. 2012-09-20. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  46. "Crisis and Security Management". En.mastersinleiden.nl. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  47. "International Tax Centre". Itc-leiden.nl. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  48. "Leiden Academy on Vitality and Ageing". Leydenacademy.nl. Retrieved 2015-07-16.
  49. "LIACS (Advanced Computer Science)". Liacs.nl. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  50. "Brain & Cognition". Libc-leiden.nl. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
  51. "QS World University Rankings 2010 Results".

Further reading

  • Otterspeer, Willem (2008). The Bastion of Liberty. Leiden University Today and Yesterday. Amsterdam University Press. ISBN 978-90-8728-030-7.  Online version: The Bastion of Liberty - (Open Access)
  • Willem Otterspeer: Good, gratifying and renowned. A concise history of Leiden University. Transl. by John R.J. Eyck. Leiden, 2015. ISBN 978-90-8728-235-6
  • Th. Lunsingh Scheurleer & G.H.M. Posthumus Meyjes (ed.) (1975). Leiden University in the seventeenth century: an exchange of learning. ISBN 90-04-04267-9. 

External links

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Coordinates: 52°09′22″N 4°29′13″E / 52.156071°N 4.486949°E / 52.156071; 4.486949

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